''Anemone virginiana'' is an upright growing

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

buttercup family

Ranunculaceae Ranunculaceae (buttercup or crowfoot family; Latin "little frog", from "frog") is a family of over 2,000 known species of flowering plants in 43 genera, distributed worldwide. The largest genera are ''Ranunculus'' (600 species), ''Delphinium' ...

. It is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

that grows tall, flowering from May until July, the flowers are white or greenish-white. After flowering the fruits are produced in a dense rounded thimble shaped spikes long and wide. When the fruits, called achenes, are ripe they have gray-white colored, densely woolly styles, that allow them to blow away in the wind. The leaf structure is whorled halfway up the stem and each individual leaf appears to be deeply cut. Native from eastern North America, where it is found growing in dry or open woods. This plant can be found in 38 out of the 50 states in the U.S. and is located anywhere from Maine to Minnesota going west, and found as far south as Georgia and Louisiana.

Common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

s include tall anemone, thimble-weed page 99 and tumble-weed. Note that several other plant species are known as " thimbleweed". IMG 7456-Anemone virginiana

Although this plant sometimes is called a "tumbleweed", it lacks the characteristic tumbleweed habit. The fruit resembles a tumbleweed in that it is wind-dispersed and tumbles, an unusual mechanism of

seed dispersal In Spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vectors, ...

(see

Diaspore (botany) In botany, a diaspore is a plant dispersal unit consisting of a seed or spore plus any additional tissues that assist dispersal. In some seed plants, the diaspore is a seed and fruit together, or a seed and elaiosome. In a few seed plants, the d ...

). ''Anemone virginiana'' was also given the common name "Thimbleweed" due to its pistil resembling the shape of a thimble. This plant is very durable in different weather conditions, ranging from part shade to sun and being drought and cold tolerant. It prefers acidic soils but will tolerate liming, making it great for gardens.

Varieties

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...

accepts two botanical varieties of ''A. virginiana, A. virginiana'' var. ''alba'' and ''A. virginiana'' var. ''cylindroidea.'' ''A. virginia'' var. ''alba'' has a native range from eastern Canada to the north central and northeastern United States. ''A. virginiana'' var. ''cylindroidea'' is found across Canada and the north central and northeastern United States.

References

virginiana Flora of Canada Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of the United States {{Ranunculales-stub